Panchayat school students take a 'smart' test

TNN | Updated: Nov 29, 2018, 0:46 IST

Trichy: Writing examinations using smart phones may not be a big deal at a time when the device is used for a wide variety of everyday e-commerce activity. However, for students of a government middle school in Perambalur district, it was a quantum leap to appear for an online test using smart phones, many borrowed or arranged. In all, 28 students from the panchayat union middle school at K Eriayur appeared for the online Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan (VVM) test on Wednesday, an online test aimed at educating and popularizing science among school students. It’s a national programme held in collaboration with NCERT which was created to identify and nurture the bright minds among the student community. The credit for the students appearing for the exam goes to the school which has been encouraging them to take online scholarship exams foreseeing their employability which largely depends on online competitive exams in future. Saying that no other government school has so far conducted the exam in Perambalur, S Kulanthaivel, bachelor teacher of the school, said he learned about the exam online while searching for scholarship exams for students. He found that the exam might serve dual purpose. While students keen on subjects related to science could be identified, it might also help them avail of scholarships ranging from Rs 2,000 up to Rs 25,000 based on their performance. “While only some of the students had smart phone at home, we teachers arranged for phones and made the students appear for the exam on Tuesday,” said Kulanthaivel.

For S Nisha of Class VIII, the exam was a first-of-a-kind experience. While she found it easy and appeared confident of making it to the state level, she also felt that it would be much better if she could write her schools exams the same way. State coordinator of VVM, G Kannabiran, said that a total of 7,200 students from class VI-XI across various schools had registered for the exam this year from Tamil Nadu. This was the seventh edition of VVM conducted online for the second year. Through this test, students could be exposed to online mode of the examination right from their middle school, he said. Students who secured the first three places in the district, state and national level exams would have an opportunity to visit an institution that has been carrying out scientific research and interact with scientists. But there were many schools that weren’t aware of such a test. Steps were being taken to publicise the tests so that more students appeared for it, added Kannabiran.